time of their entry into the country. Since 1910 the law has provided for the deportation of prostitutes and persons concerned with prostitution without reference to the date of their imigration, but all other classes were until now exempt from deportation after three years residence in this country.

Until the present law went into effect, however, there was no provision whatever for deporting aliens on account of crimes committed after landing in the United States, except, as already stated, in the case of prostitution and relating offenses. No matter how many other crimes an alien might commit in this country he could not be deported on account of them, and in consequence there was no legal means of getting rid of this class of undesirables. But the new law makes a radical change in the previous policy of the Government in this respect by providing as follows:

Any alien who is hereafter sentenced to imprisonment for a term of one year or more because of conviction in this country of a crime involving moral turpitude, committed within five years after the entry of the alien to the United States, or who is hereafter sentenced more than once to such a term of imprisonment because of conviction in this country of any crime involving moral turpitude, committed at any time after entry . . . shall upon the warrant of the Secretary of Labor, be taken into custody and deported.

It is provided, however, that deportation shall not be made if a criminal is pardoned, or if the court imposing sentence makes a recommendation that deportation shall not be made.

'A's elsewhere noted,* the deportation of aliens on account of crimes committed after landing in the United States was one of the recommendations which the Im*See page 329.

migration Commission made to Congress, and from the Commission's investigation of alien criminality it is believed that it is a provision which will have a wholesome effect on certain kinds of law violations which are all too prevalent among our immigration population.

INCREASED HEAD TAX

The new law fixes the "head tax" at $8.00 on every alien entering the United States, excepting children under sixteen years of age who accompany their father or their mother. In the previous law the tax was $4.00 on every alien without reference to age. According to the report of the Senate Committee on Immigration * the purpose of exempting children under sixteen is, "to make the increased head tax fall more heavily on the unmarried and ‘bird-of-passage' class of aliens than upon men accompanied by their wives or children; to have the tax, to the slight extent that it operates as a restrictive factor, apply most strongly against the least desirable elements."

In making this change in the law Congress followed a suggestion of the Immigration Commission that the head tax be adjusted so as to make a marked discrimination in favor of men with families. Under the old law, residents of Canada, Newfoundland, Cuba, or Mexico were admitted without payment of the head tax, but now the exemption is limited to those countries only when they come for a temporary stay, and while the old law did not impose the tax on immigrants entering Guam, Porto Rico, or Hawaii, the new law makes no such exception in that regard.

* Senate Report No. 352, 64th Congress, 2d Session, p. 3.

INSPECTORS AND MATRONS ON SHIPS

One of the recommendations of the Immigration Commission was for the enactment of a law providing for the placing of Government officials, both men and women, on immigrant carrying ships, the purpose stated being the enforcement of the law and the protection of steerage passengers. This recommendation was prompted by the findings of agents of the Commission who traveled in the guise of immigrants in the steerage of a considerable number of transatlantic ships and both observed and experienced the hardships and indignities to which immigrants were subjected, especially on some of the lines. It was believed that if our immigrant inspectors and matrons were on board, steerage passengers would be afforded better protection and it was also believed that such officials could study the various immigrants during the ocean voyage and thus would be able to render valuable assistance to officials at ports of landing in their inspection of newcomers. The recommendation was seriously considered by Congress and provision for carrying it into affect has appeared in various bills during the past four or five years. It was feared, however, that it would be impracticable if not impossible to enforce such a law because of the doubtful right this Government would have to place officials on foreign ships sailing from foreign ports. After much discussion in committees and also on the floor of Congress it was provided that negotiations be entered into with those countries, vessels of which bring aliens to the United States, with a view to detailing inspectors and matrons of the immigration service for duty on such vessels. The outcome will, therefore, depend wholly upon the attitude of

foreign Governments and while some of them may grant the desired privilege it is altogether probable that others will refuse it.

ADMINISTRATIVE FINES

The so-called administrative fine, which is a penalty imposed by the Secretary of Labor for certain violations of the immigration law on the part of steamship companies, has been a highly important factor in preventing such companies from bringing diseased or mentally deficient aliens to this country. In earlier laws this fine was imposed only in cases where aliens afflicted with a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease were brought to United States ports, and when it appeared that the disease existed, and might have been detected by means of a competent medical examination, at the time of embarkation at a foreign port. The penalty was fixt at $100 in each case. The Immigration Act of 1907 amended the administrative fine provision of previous laws to include the bringing of idiots, imbeciles, epileptics, and persons afflicted with tuberculosis, as well as those afflicted with a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease, but the amount of the penalty was not changed.

The new law, however, makes a far wider use of the administrative fine than its predecessors did, for in addition to the diseases named in the Act of 1907 it includes insanity, feeble-mindedness, constitutional psychopathic inferiority, chronic alcoholism, and tuberculosis in any form, and the penalty is increased from $100 to $200 in each case. A like penalty is provided for bringing aliens who are excluded because unable to read, or because they are natives of the restricted area in Asia previously described, if these dis

abilities might have been detected by the exercise of reasonable precaution prior to the departure of the aliens from a foreign port. An administrative fine of $25 in each case is also imposed for bringing aliens afflicted with any mental defect, other than those already enumerated, or physical defects which may affect the ability of the aliens to earn a living, provided, of course, that such defects existed when the alien embarked at a foreign port and might have been discovered by means of a competent medical examination at that time.

But the new law imposes another heavy penalty in all cases which are subject to an administrative fine, for it provides that, in addition to the regular penalty, the steamship company concerned shall be assessed an amount equal to that paid by each alien of the classes named for his transportation from the initial point of his departure for the United States, which amount is to be paid to the debarred alien by a United States official.

The method of enforcing payment of administrative fines in all the cases considered is simple but exceedingly effective because the law provides that the vessels involved shall not be granted clearance papers until the fine is paid or a sufficient amount of money deposited to insure its payment. In practise the administrative fine system serves the double purpose of protecting the United States against the attempted immigration of diseased and defective aliens, and, what is more important, of saving inadmissible aliens from the cost, hardships and disappointments which are the inevitable result of coming to the United States only to be turned back at the gateway. In the past the fear of the fine has led steamship companies to make a fairly careful